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SALTEX Drives Year Round Leads

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SALTEX Drives Year Round Leads: Since SALTEX 2017 took place last November at the NEC, Birmingham, a number of exhibitors are still generating business as a direct result of the show – re-affirming that the exhibition is the must-attend event for any company involved in the grounds care industry.

Fivesquared, a brand of Earlsmere, is a leading vibration management provider to the grounds care industry. After exhibiting at SALTEX 2017, the company reported a 15 per cent increase in stand enquiries compared to the previous year with a number of significant leads coming from professional sports clubs, schools, universities and colleges.

SALTEX Drives Year Round Leads

The company now boasts a number of prestigious clients such as English Heritage, Southampton FC, Manchester United FC, Tottenham Hotspur FC, Manchester City FC, Wimbledon (The All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club) and Merchant Taylors School – all of which were a direct result of exhibiting at SALTEX.

“Predominantly I would say that the majority of our overall business comes from exhibiting at the show,” says director Jeremy Hoyle.

“We have been exhibiting at SALTEX for about eight years now and since it moved to the NEC we have found a location that we are really happy with. In my opinion you can’t just exhibit at a show like SALTEX the once and not return. You need to establish a presence year-on-year because that is when you see an upward increase in business.

“It is not just after the show that you see the results – business continues to come in throughout the year. In fact, we are still getting enquiries from people who visited our stand – literally on a weekly basis.”

SCH Supplies, specialists in attachments and accessories for garden tractors and ride on lawnmowers, reported that SALTEX 2017 significantly helped increase its European dealership network.

“SALTEX is very important to us because we don’t employ any outside sales representation,” says managing director Andrew Rodwell. “The event is our only vehicle for engaging with potential customers face to face, while showcasing our products, which is enormously important.

“We already have numerous dealers in the UK but as a direct result of the 2017 show we appointed several new dealers from Europe, which is a trend that we’d like to continue.

“SALTEX is usually the only show that we have a presence at. It provides a focal point for the company and allows us to consider the direction the industry is taking which in turn informs the decisions we make regarding development of new machinery.”

Market-leading machinery manufacturer, Kubota UK, used last year’s SALTEX as the ideal platform to showcase its latest range of innovative and high-performance compact tractors and ride-on mowers.

“SALTEX is a great platform to showcase new solutions to groundsmen, greenkeepers, estate managers and turf professionals,” says Adrian Langmead, business development manager for Kubota UK’s Groundcare Division. “We had a fantastic time meeting with everyone to discuss our current and latest product ranges.”

The results of the SALTEX 2017 exhibitor survey is further testament to the success of the show with over 95 per cent of SALTEX exhibitors’ generating new sales leads while 83 per cent took direct orders on the show floor.

No doubt these statistics are a reflection of the growing trend in new exhibitors to this year’s show. Honda Engines and Honda UK, Case IH UK and ISEKI UK are just some of the newcomers in 2018.

David Withers, managing director at ISEKI UK, is certainly looking forward to exhibiting at SALTEX for the first time.

“As we continue to grow our ISEKI business in the UK we are always looking for relevant opportunities to meet with existing and potential customers to understand their needs and share the latest technologies that our product range has to offer. As such SALTEX offers us a great opportunity to meet a wide and diverse group of customers in one place. We look forward to seeing old friends and making new ones at the NEC later this year.”

Commenting on the growing trend of new exhibitors Charles Neale, event sales manager, says: “The show continues to grow and we are receiving new enquiries every week alongside existing exhibitors investing in bigger stands. Demand at this period in the sales cycle has never been higher.”

To view show highlights and key interviews please visit www.youtube.com/MyIOG

For more information visit www.iogsaltex.com

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Arb150 Ticks All The Boxes

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Arb150 Ticks All The Boxes: Wiltshire Countryside Services have become the latest company to purchase an Arb 150p from GreenMech. For Owner Adam Lonsdale, his decision was made easier not only by the build quality and back-up service that GreenMech provides compared to the alternatives available in the current market, but also by the superior performance of this petrol version.

Founded in 2014, Wiltshire Countryside Services provide a variety of arboricultural and forestry services to domestic and commercial customers alike. “We were getting more and more problems with our previous chipper and ended up spending out more than what the machine was worth!” explains Adam. When his local dealer GA Groundcare took on the GreenMech franchise last year, Adam went with his wish-list and was excited to see what was available. “I told Ashley at GA Groundcare what I wanted, and the budget, and was pleased to see that the GreenMech machines satisfied more of my needs and wants than other manufacturers could.”

Arb150 Ticks All The Boxes

“We’d had a demo of both the diesel and petrol Arborist 130 machines, when Ashley mentioned that a 38hp petrol model was then about to launch. After seeing the Arborist 150p at the Arb Show I knew that was the one I wanted and bought it without even having a demo.” In addition to the significant cost saving over the diesel equivalent, Adam was particularly impressed with the output performance achieved whilst still keeping the unit under 750kg. “The sub 750kg weight means my colleague or anyone else can tow it without a special license. Also, because the majority of our work is domestic tree surgery, it can be towed by a Land Rover, quadbike or alternative right to the spot where it’s required, leaving a minimal footprint on lawns and gardens.”

The superior build quality was another box ticked for Adam. “Some chippers we’ve looked at have fibreglass bonnets – in this industry things get bumped and dropped and a fibreglass bonnet is asking for trouble. The GreenMech machines seem to consist of more strong, hardwearing metal components. It’s easy to use, simple to maintain and all backed up with reliable back up support from GreenMech and their dealer network.”

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Allett’s Complete Lawncare System

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Allett’s Complete Lawncare System: Whilst we’re all hoping the Beast From The East, The Pest From The West and any other cold weather extremes are far behind us, take a moment to consider their impact of such conditions on your lawn.

There is a direct correlation between grass growth and ground temperature, and the extreme lows followed by recent highs will have grass growing incredibly well. The downside to this, however, is that the chances of moss and weeds also growing have increased.

Allett's Complete Lawncare System

Dealing with these problems, and creating the perfect lawn, takes both time and patience so it is vital to use the correct equipment, and at the correct time. Buying various pieces of equipment can be costly and problematic, particularly for those where storage space is at a premium. The unique Complete Lawncare System from Allett could be the answer.

The Complete Lawncare System features six interchangeable cartridges that fit on to Allett’s Kensington petrol mowers and Liberty 43 battery powered mowers. The system transforms the machine from a traditional mower to a specialist gardening tool simply by changing its cartridges. The system includes an aerator, a lawn brush, dethatcher, verticutter and a 10-bladed cartridge, as well as the walk-behind cylinder lawnmower, all in one machine which eases storage issues and reduces costs.

Scarifying is a key way to ensuring your lawn is healthy and gloriously green throughout the summer and is a particularly good way of repairing it after the recent cold weather spells. The Allett scarifier cartridge gently removes moss and thatch, whilst also reduces weeds and prevents problems in the future. For lawns with severe problems and thick growth of dead matter, an alternative cartridge in the system to use is the dethatcher.

For more than 50 years, Allett has specialised in the design and manufacture of precision, single-cylinder, walk-behind mowers that produce a quintessentially striped lawn. The homeowner range are leaders within their various market sectors providing users with expertly-built, reliable, well-proven grass-cutting reel mowers which produce a seemingly effortless first-class finish to every lawn on which they are used.

All of the cartridges are available from Allett’s UK wide network of specialist independent garden machinery dealers. Lawn mower prices start from £429.

For further information visit www.allett.co.uk.

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STM and Espritt’s Prestigious Order

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STM and Espritt’s Prestigious Order: If you think of Brugge you almost instantly conjure up pictures of their spectacular waterway system.

But they do have grass as well.

STM and Espritt's Prestigious Order

This is the first season with STM/SCAG machinery being represented by Espritt, our new dealership in Belgium, their Dirk Allard has already obtained a prestigious order for ten SWZ pedestrian machines for maintaining the grass areas in the historic and beautiful city of Brugge.

This is a very good order to have received, not only as it reflects well on Dirk and Espritt, but as it also puts the familiar orange SCAG machinery out and about in a prominent European city.

The SWZ is a pedestrian unit with zero-turn operation, and they have selected the 36” rotary deck option, chosen for this work as it is ideal for intricate working areas and easy and quick to transport on trailers. Its cutting capability is a further benefit and we look forward to a long relationship with this landmark city as we help to maintain its internationally celebrated appearance.

 Machines are available for demonstration through the STM dealership network.

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Rigby Taylor’s New Euroflor Brochure

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Rigby Taylor’s New Euroflor Brochure: Rigby Taylor has confirmed the launch of its 2018 Euroflor urban meadow flowers brochure.

This 56-page, fully-illustrated booklet has an ‘at-a-glance’ feature, site selector and details of the complete range including showing their colours, in-situ examples and individual characteristics such as timings for sowing and flowering, as well as sowing rates and pack coverage, height and species mix.

Rigby Taylor's New Euroflor Brochure

Included are both the commemorate mixtures, those selected for Rigby Taylor’s Project Pollin-8 and others recommended for BREEAM projects.

The brochure also details recommend site preparation, installation and maintenance, together with a helpful troubleshooting section and five ‘Identiflower’ pages showing common and Latin names as well as individual colour illustrations of all the flowers contained in the mixtures.

Included also are many customer testimonials from throughout the UK, from the north of Scotland to Cornwall.

Euroflor is available in 50 gram and 1 kilo foil sachets.

Rigby Taylor's New Euroflor Brochure

For your copy of this free, full-colour brochure, contact a Rigby Taylor area representative or Freephone 0800 424919.

For more information, visit: www.rigbytaylor.com

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